Electrical contacts of electrical connectors must be electrically connected to a shunt member when the electrical connectors are electrically connected to circuit boards, especially those used in disc drives of computers to protect the electronic circuits thereof. The electrical connectors are preferably placed at selected positions on the circuit boards by pick-and-place apparatus.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,396,245; 5,242,311; 5,249,977; 5,571,022 and 5,681,174 disclose electrical connectors to which a cover or cap is mounted so that a suction nozzle of a suction apparatus can engage the cover or cap and via suction pick-up the electrical connectors and place them onto selected positions of a circuit board. However, none of the covers or caps described in these patents engage all the electrical contacts of the electrical connectors so as to electrically connect them together.
The electrical connector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,083 includes a conductive member affixed to a housing and having protrusions spaced from respective electrical contacts of the electrical connector so as to provide spark gaps between the protrusions and the electrical contacts thereby providing ESD protection when the connector is mounted at an input/output port of an apparatus. The conductive member cannot be used in conjunction with a pick-and-place apparatus and it does not electrically engage all the electrical contacts.